Stories and Tales from "Overwegcompound"

Pecans in the Cemetery

On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big, old pecan tree
just inside the cemetery fence. One day, two boys filled up a
bucketful of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began
dividing the nuts. “One for you, one for me. One for you, one for
me,” said one boy. Several dropped and rolled down toward the
fence.

Another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle. As he
passed, he thought he heard voices from inside the cemetery. He
slowed down to investigate. Sure enough, he heard, “One for you,
one for me. One for you, one for me.” He just knew what it was,
so he jumped back on his bike and rode off.

Now just around the bend he met an old man with a cane,
hobbling along. “Come here quick,” said the boy, “you won’t believe
what I heard!  Satan and the Lord are down at the cemetery dividing
up the souls.”

The man said, “Beat it kid, can’t you see it’s hard for me to
walk.” When the boy insisted though, the man hobbled to the
cemetery.  Standing by the fence they heard, “One for you, one for
me. One for you, one for me…” The old man whispered, “Boy,
you’ve been tellin’ the truth.  Let’s see if we can see the Lord.”
Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence yet were still
unable to see anything.

The old man and the boy gripped the wrought iron bars of the
fence tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of the Lord.
At last they heard, “One for you, one for me. That’s all.  Now let’s
go get those nuts by the fence and we’ll be done.”

They say the old man made it back to town a full 5 minutes
ahead of the boy on the bike!
                                 Author Unknown